LEVELLAND — An agenda item Monday night calls for City Council to discuss a pending lawsuit.
The suit, Emilia Espinoza v. Levelland Police Department, relates to an officer-involved shooting last year.
Jose Antonio Espinoza Ruiz, 55, died in an investigation related to a disturbance call about 7 a.m. Jan. 23, 2015, according to A-J Media’s archives.
The council meeting is set for 7 p.m. Other agenda items include contracts with the local probation department for a community service program and Hockley County for fire protection.

Texas groundwater districts and certain landowners annoyed at being told how much water they can pump could eventually see each other in court, attorney Tiffany Dowell Lashmet said.
Dowell specializes in agricultural law and writes the Texas Agriculture Law Blog. The Amarillo-based attorney said during Texas A&M AgriLife’s risk-management meeting Tuesday a water-rights court battle in the near future will not surprise her.
“Do I think we’ll see a lawsuit? Yes, I absolutely do. Have I seen one yet? No,” she said.

LEVELLAND — A prosecutor’s race is underway in the 286th District.
District Attorney Chris Dennis is seeking reelection against challenger Richard Husen, the Hockley County News-Press reports. Husen retired last year as Levelland’s city attorney.
The 286th District encompasses Hockley County and neighboring Cochran County.
Another district attorney’s race is underway in the nearby 106th District of Gaines, Dawson, Lynn and Garza counties. Incumbent Michael Munk faces challengers Roxanne Cox and Philip Mack Furlow.

Tell Sid Miller merry Christmas.
Otherwise, a polite nod will do.
But if you give the agriculture commissioner a feared greeting of “happy holidays,” prepare to be slapped.
Miller announced in a Facebook post Wednesday his frustration with holiday-season well-wishers who do not tell him Merry Christmas. It read:
“If one more person says Happy Holidays to me I just might slap them. Either tell me Merry Christmas or just don’t say anything.”

No injuries have been reported in a fire of a mobile home Friday morning in North Lubbock County.
The blaze is under investigation, sheriff’s deputies told A-J Media at the scene. The home was vacant and is located on North Chester Avenue, a few miles outside city limits.
Andy Muñoz, a neighbor, noticed smoke coming from the property about 3:30 or 4 a.m., then called the fire department.
“I smelled the smoke and I came out here and saw a big cloud,” he said.
The home has been unoccupied since its former resident moved out about two months ago, he added.

Rain will continue Saturday, but temperatures slightly above freezing will help improve icy conditions.
Temperatures will warm Saturday afternoon to about 34 degrees — just above freezing, said Felicia Bowser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lubbock. That means only some of the precipitation will be icy.

BROWNFIELD — Dr. Gabe Hisel’s Old Man Scary Cellars is partnering with Wedding Oak Winery in San Saba to launch an incubator project.
The winery purchased a historic building on the same block as its main branch, then renovated it to house a retail tasting room and winery production facility. The incubator partnership is inspired by similar projects in Carlton, Oregon and Walla Walla, Washington.
Supporters consider Old Man Scary Cellars’ lease a great way to expand its business without the expense of starting a new winery from scratch.

LITTLEFIELD — Goodbye, denim mill.
Hello, dairy foods company and sex offender treatment center.
Littlefield’s news last January of the closure of its largest employer could have been devastating.
And it was at first, if you look at Lamb County’s unemployment rate just before and after American Cotton Growers closed its doors. That number more than doubled between December and January, from 4.5 percent to 9.1 percent.

LAMESA — Antonio De La Cruz will likely spend the rest of his days behind bars for sexually abusing his stepdaughter multiple times.
District Judge Carter Schildknecht sentenced the 48-year-old former South Plains narcotics officer on Thursday to life sentences for each of his three convictions — continuous sexual abuse of a child and two counts aggravated sexual assault of a child.
A Dawson County jury of seven men and five women deliberated about 30 minutes Wednesday before returning guilty verdicts on each of those charges.